Blue Horizon’s new Sanctum isolation platform is specifically designed to isolate individual high-performance components such as turntables, DACs, preamplifiers, power amplifiers, CD players and streamers from all sources of unwanted vibration.
The platform’s construction brings together a selection of carefully chosen materials from opposite ends of the elasticity spectrum, combining them in such a way as to “dramatically reduce” resonance evenly across the audio band. The platform shelf is made from high density fibreboard (HDF), favoured for its mechanical stability. Unlike woods with a fixed grain, HDF does not expand or contract with climatic changes.
The HDF shelf is precision-machined in five places: four recesses, one at each corner, and a circular central hollow designed to eliminate any standing waves within the shelf itself. Each of the four corner recesses features a complex isolation foot made up of three key elements:
A dense compound of cork, rubber and leather, whose ‘chaotic’ construction, which randomly combines materials of varying density and elasticity, is “ideal” for breaking up resonant frequencies.
A ‘visco-elastic’ polymer (meaning that it exhibits properties of both liquids and solids), which combines shock absorption and good memory with “very high vibration isolation” and damping characteristics over a very wide temperature range.
A precision-machined spiked aluminium cone.
Each foot’s assembly is held in place by an outer ring which prevents the individual parts from dropping out when the platform is being lifted into position, but which “decouples” once the Sanctum is in place, leaving the platform “freely floating” on the isolation feet.
To protect furniture surfaces, the Sanctum comes with four 5mm spike protection feet, which additionally provide “further resonance control” by introducing an additional material boundary (solid brass, in contrast to the aluminium spikes). The Sanctum comes in two finish options: matt black or matt white, both scratch-resistant and easy to clean.
Specifications
Dimensions: 450mm (width) x 400mm (depth) x 40mm (overall height including shelf & isolation feet)
Recommended maximum load: 30kg (to enable optimal performance of polymer component)
Finish options: Matt black or matt white.
The Blue Horizon Sanctum will be available from October 2015 priced at £195